Dr. Richard Benkin is an independent human rights activist who has been part of efforts to correct injustices worldwide. His web site, InterfaithStrength, is linked in his profile.

Monday, February 01, 2016

Nationalist Muslims: Antidote to Islamists?

Most Muslim-majority nations are stitched together nations; that is, forced marriages of several other peoples with independent and even conflicting existences. Most people, for instance, know that Iraq was formed with Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds. Few of them, however, realize the Iran is only about 60 percent Persian. The other 40 percent are comprised of different national groups, most Muslim, many still yearning for independence. Pakistan's dominant ethnic group, Punjabis, make up only about 45 percent of that country. Both Iran and Pakistan both have several Sunni Muslim peoples straining under their oppressive yokes and looking for their independence.

I've been one of the characteristics of radical Islam is that it owes no allegiance to any national entity, except perhaps for temporary, strategic reasons. Its view is universal; we refer to a worldwide Caliphate. The groups mentioned above reject that and emphasize nationalism. Moreover, part of their nationalism virulently rejects Islamism and seeks to re-establish nations that are equally welcoming to people of all faiths. They also believe that the current nations of Iran and Pakistan are tied to radical Islam; and they oppose that as much as the occupation of their countries.

Is the West missing an opportunity if it does not support these peoples?

Do they also provide a real alternative to the flailing about for non-radical Muslims, which often settles on faux moderates?

About Me

Dr. Benkin freed Bangladeshi journalist, Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, imprisoned and tortured after writing articles about the rise of Islamic radicals and urging relations with Israel. He later forced Bangladesh’s notorious RAB to release Choudhury unharmed. Since 2006, Benkin has been investigating and exposing the Red-Green alliance of Communists and Islamists, especially in South Asia, and speaking about its activities. He currently is helping Bangladeshi Hindu refugees in West Bengal and elsewhere secure basic rights and protections; and to prevent their destruction by Islamists. He urges repeal of Bangladesh’s Vested Property Act that gives the government power to plunder religious minorities, especially Hindus, and distribute their lands to Muslim cronies. Dr. Benkin is fighting to make the world aware of this ethnic cleansing, ignored by international media and rights agencies; and he is helping to organize Indian Hindus in the United States and elsewhere to act to protect their co-religionists in South Asia and fight radical Islamist terror. Richard Benkin is a strong pro-Israel advocate who believes Jews and Hindus must unite to defeat radical Islam.